Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records

Oil derrick with workers. Prints and Photographs Collection: Oil Scenes I, e_enr_0101.

The Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry project's origins lay in the 1951 gathering of oil pioneers at Beaumont in honor of the Spindletop discovery. At that time, Mrs. Estelle B. Sharp, wife of one of the early Spindletop drillers, began to see the need to gather the recollections of these pioneers before they were lost. Through her contributions and those of others, the project was begun in the summer of 1952 under the auspices of the Archives at The University of Texas.

The collection documents the development of the Texas oil industry from the turn of the century to 1950. It includes 218 taped interviews of oral reminiscences recalled by pioneers in all phases of oil fields and oil booms--roughnecks, drillers, promoters, financiers, contractors, leasemen and law officers. The project was undertaken by sixteen interviewers who recorded on tape the memories of persons who had first-hand knowledge of the history or lore of the early oil industry in Texas.

The interviews were fully transcribed as part of the original project, and each interview on this site is synchronized with its transcript, as well as indexes produced and refined by two generations of UT's Library & Information Science students.

TARO finding aid

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J. W. Riggs Interview Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 1: Riggs discussing wells, gushers, wildcat wells, Bastrop, Goose Creek, Fault lines, and Hughes Tool Co.	C.G. Hamill Interview [part 1 of 5] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 16a: Hamill discussing Kerrville, sulphur gas, yellow fever, and his brother Jim Hamill
Max Theodore Schlicher Interview Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 6: Schlicher discussing Weatherford, Spindletop, Superior Oil Company, Patillo Higgins, songs, and Sour Lake, among other topics.	W. C. Gilbert Interview [part 1 of 7] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 114a
John S. Wynn Interview [part 1 of 3] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 9a: Wynn discussing his experiences in Corsicana and Beaumont	John Wynn Interview [part 2 of 3] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 9b: Wynn continuing his discussion of his oil industry experiences, including rooms at the Crosby for "a dollar and a half," and Sulphur drops
Fred Jennings Interview Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 2: Jennings discussing Goose Creek, the differences between day diggers and night diggers, songs, nicknames, mosquitoes, and the flu	John Wynn Interview [part 3 of 3] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 10c: Wynn continuing his discussion of his experiences in the oil industry, including Spindletop, being "gassed" for the first time, hearing damage, Sourlake, his 1909 patent, and Hughes
Walter Cline Interview [part 1 of 6] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 46a: Cline discussing canals and the oil business in general	Walter Cline Interview [part 2 of 6] Source:Oral History of the Texas Oil Industry Records Reel 46b: Cline continuing his discussion of the oil industry, including Walter Sharp's theory of working with people

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